1. Mainstreaming Digital Talking Book production By Douglas G Blane Technical Co-ordinator Digital Audio Project D.G.Blane@open.ac.uk www.open.ac.uk/disability Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

2. Acronyms CSS Cascading Style Sheets DAISY Digital Accessible Information System DDA Disability Discrimination Act DTB Digital Talking Book DTD Document Type Definition HTML Hypertext Mark-up Language OU The Open University PDA Personal Digital Assistant PDF Portable Document Format SENDA Special Educational Needs & Disability Act SMIL Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language VLE Virtual Learning Environment W3CWorld Wide Web Consortium XML eXtendable Mark-up Language Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

3. ‘The human mind is a fire which has to be set alight … we take this as our ambition’ Lord Crowther The Open University Chancellor 1969 Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

4. Introduction Background Types of student disabilities Why mainstream DTB production? Structure is the key OU production workflow OU production processes Mainstreaming beyond disability Looking into the future A student’s perspective Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

5. Background 180,000 students actively studying with the OU 10,000 (5.6%) OU students registered as disabled Not all disabled students studying with the OU register as disabled with the OU All statistics based on 2007 data Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

6. Types of student disabilities Fatigue / Pain 3904 Mobility / Physical 2926 Mental health 2448 Manual skills 1914 Other 1735 Dyslexia 1606 Sight 938 Unseen disability 854 Hearing 693 Personal care 669 Speech 351 Autistic spectrum 58 Students may have more than one disability Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

7. Why mainstream DTB production? Increase number of courses available as DTBs Decrease our costs to produce DTBs Provide DTBs & other e-formats for all students Meet students individual preferred learning styles Provide “structured” MP3 files for all students Decrease our costs to distribute DTBs via the web / VLE Comply with SENDA & DDA legislation Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

8. Structure is the key The Open University Structured Authoring system Provides structured outputs in XML, Word, HTML, PDF etc Allows automated transformation into DAISY Digital Talking Books Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

9. Structure is the key The Open University Structured Authoring system Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

10. OU Production Workflow Word Structure: Schemas DTDs Print layout PDF XML Web forms Editors: Illustration Formatting for Publishing Editors: Audio Visual Other inputs Learning objects HTML VLE DAISY DTB Structured MP3 Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

11. OU Production Workflow Word Structure: Schemas DTDs Print layout PDF XML Web forms Editors: Illustration Formatting for Publishing Editors: Audio Visual Other inputs Learning objects HTML VLE DAISY DTB Structured MP3 Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

12. OU Production Workflow Word Structure: Schemas DTDs Print layout PDF XML Web forms Editors: Illustration Formatting for Publishing Editors: Audio Visual Other inputs Learning objects HTML VLE DAISY DTB Structured MP3 Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

13. OU Production Workflow Word Structure: Schemas DTDs Print layout PDF XML Web forms Editors: Illustration Formatting for Publishing Editors: Audio Visual Other inputs Learning objects HTML VLE DAISY DTB Structured MP3 Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

14. OU Production Workflow Word Structure: Schemas DTDs Print layout PDF XML Web forms Editors: Illustration Formatting for Publishing Editors: Audio Visual Other inputs Learning objects HTML VLE DAISY DTB Structured MP3 Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

15. OU Production Workflow Word Structure: Schemas DTDs XML Formatting for Publishing DAISY DTB Structured MP3 Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

16. OU Production Workflow OU Structured Authoring OU XML DAISY DTB Structured MP3 DAISY XML Word Other outputs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

17. OU Production Processes Course material OU handcrafted processes OU DTBs Human voice OU DTB software Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

18. OU Production Processes Course material OU handcrafted processes DAISY DTBs Structured MP3 Other outputs OU DTBs Synthesised voice Mixed synthesised & human voices Human voice DAISY Pipeline Easy Publisher Easy Converter XML OU DTB software Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

19. OU Production Processes Course material DAISY DTBs Structured MP3 Other outputs Synthesised voice Mixed synthesised & human voices Human voice DAISY Pipeline Easy Publisher Easy Converter XML Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

20. OU Production Processes Course material DAISY DTBs Structured MP3 Other outputs Synthesised voice Mixed synthesised & human voices Human voice DAISY Pipeline Easy Publisher Easy Converter XML Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

21. OU Production Processes Course material DAISY DTBs Structured MP3 Other outputs Synthesised voice Mixed synthesised & human voices Human voice DAISY Pipeline Easy Publisher Easy Converter XML Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

22. OU Production Processes Course material DAISY DTBs Structured MP3 Other outputs Synthesised voice Mixed synthesised & human voices Human voice DAISY Pipeline Easy Publisher Easy Converter XML Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

23. OU Production Processes Course material DAISY DTBs Structured MP3 Other outputs Synthesised voice Mixed synthesised & human voices Human voice DAISY Pipeline Easy Publisher Easy Converter XML Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

24. Mainstreaming Beyond Disability DAISY DTB software player –Cost –Platform dependent Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

25. Mainstreaming Beyond Disability DAISY DTB software player –Cost Free OU DTB Player based on a business model similar to Adobe Acrobat Reader Increase potential DAISY DTB usage in to the mainstream market Increase potential demand for DAISY DTBs Increase potential market share Increase potential revenue Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

26. Mainstreaming Beyond Disability DAISY DTB software player –Cost Free OU DTB Player –Platform independent Web browser plug-in OU DTB Player Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

27. Mainstreaming Beyond Disability DAISY DTB software player –Cost Free OU DTB Player –Platform independent Web browser plug-in OU DTB Player Can be used on Windows, MAC, Linux, Unix, PDA, mobile phones, other Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

28. Mainstreaming Beyond Disability DAISY DTB software player –Cost Free OU DTB Player –Platform independent Web browser plug-in OU DTB Player Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

29. Looking into the future Further integration of academic learning structures into the DAISY standard Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

30. Looking into the future Further Integration of academic learning structures into the DAISY standard Integration of OU & BBC co-produced television programmes into DTBs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

31. Looking into the future Further Integration of academic learning structures into the DAISY standard Integration of OU & BBC co-produced television programmes into DTBs Integration of multimedia content into DTBs Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

32. Looking into the future Further Integration of academic learning structures into the DAISY standard Integration of OU & BBC co-produced television programmes into DTBs Integration of multimedia content into DTBs Mobile content for mobile devices Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

33. A student’s perspective Over to Susan Baxter… You can watch this video online through The Open University YouTube area: www.youtube.com/user/TheOpenUniversity Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008

34. Digital Audio Project Disabled Student Services The Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA www.open.ac.uk/disability Created by Douglas G Blane © The Open University 2008